Can the ICC alone bring justice to Darfur?

The conflict in Darfur is starting to evoke questions on how tribal clashes can easily aggravate into international crises. Of course the world is partly responsible for its complacency in not hearing the cries of aid agencies during the early stages of the conflict. Much of the reasons for this stems form African nations’ continued preference to distance themselves form conflicts taking place in fellow nations fearing rebuke from their peers. The same goes in regards to the international community who often avoid committing to stop clashes as they occur hoping that they would quickly wind down coupled with the fear of involving themselves into costly and lengthy processes.

Only when faced with growing criticism and compelling evidence of massacres and atrocities does the world react initially with communiqués and threats of sanctions or even military intervention. This has been the modus operandi of the international community in East timor, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the middle east and now Darfur. The Darfur crisis had been going on for the past three years it did not reach this level of carnage overnight but was built up to the monstrous humanitarian crisis it is today during the years where the international community grapple with the idea of waiting things through.

So far we know that the cause of the conflict stems from tribal clashes and has resulted in the destruction of countless of villages and lives. The international community seems to hold the government in Khartoum responsible for the carnage that took place and is right in asking for swift justice on the issue, however divisions arise on how to bring justice for the people of Darfur? The AU, the UN, the Arab League and other nations have all tried their hand at bringing peace to Darfur, some of these attempts made some headway to end stuck at diplomatic wrangling as well as maneuvering by certain quarters. No doubt Khartoum’s continued resistance towards Un peacekeeping missions and its insistence that the AU continues to be the focal organization in peacekeeping missions in Darfur comes part form the mistrust of the international community’s supposedly ulterior motives. And in fact some could even argue that Sudan is right in viewing a UN led peacekeeping operation as harboring motives that could be seen as doing the bidding of US and allies.

Fears and conspiracy aside all sides are in agreement on the need for beefing up the inadequate AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur. Once peace is restored this would entail the return of refugees, rehabilitation and a possible reconciliation effort for the victims of the crisis. The International criminal court’s (ICC) approach towards bringing to trial alleged perpetuators of the crime though well intentioned should not come out as an ultimatum or patronizing.

We should not forget that timing is crucial here as well. Yes people have to account to the crimes they perpetuated but not before the ground is secure and plus attempts should be made to work with the Sudanese government rather than going about independently. Let the AU muster up enough support and if possible enough political will to see through their peacekeeping mission and test the AU’s resolve to bring peace and justice in Africa.

We should also let internally displace people go back to the villages and restart their lives, let the villages get rebuilt and then let genuine investigations to bring to justice the perpetuated of the massacres start. This is the logical way of going about it, pushing trials now and the ensuing political wrangling will zap out the attention that needs to go to these people. The International Criminal Court’s initiative requires merit but undertaking this huge task does require collaboration with the government in Khartoum bringing charges to only two individuals does not even come close to justice. Surely surely the deaths of the estimated 200,000 people killed and more than two million displaced since fighting erupted four years ago cannot only be attributed to only two individuals. Rather meeting Khartoum’s defiance head on the iCC should have requested a collaborative scheme in meeting out justice. The ICC could have opted for a much subtler approach by going through the African Union after all the international community continues t ask Africans to help solve Africa’s problems. As always we have the tools and ability to solve our problems but the lack of political will keeps us from ding the right thing. Priorities need to be set to help resuscitate Darfur.

March 3, 2007